When Recipes Go Awry
Have you ever watched
some celebrity chef effortlessly whip up some yummy looking dish on TV?
You then try the recipe yourself but uh oh, it doesn’t come out like on TV.
As you scratch your head and retrace your steps, you begin to realize those
30 minute TV concoctions are not as simple as they seem. What went
wrong? The answer lurks in equipment, ingredients, methodology, and
expertise.
Let’s start with hardware.
I doubt you are using the exact same equipment as the TV chef. There
are huge contrasts between cooking vessels. I’m often asked if the
expensive professional cookware I use at home is really better than the
average cookware set. Hands down, the answer is Yes. But the
issue is not that it cooks food better per se. The point is that any two
pieces of equipment, even two of the same quality, will cook food
differently. Cooking is chemistry in action and even slight deviations
in the material composition, size, or shape of two pans, can alter the final
result.
Even
identical hardware can vary from piece to piece. Last night I made two
trays of crostini at the restaurant I work at. Each tray was identical in
terms of the tray itself, the number and shape of the crostini, and the
amount of olive oil I sprayed on them. I put each tray into one of two
identical ovens, at the same time, at the same preheated temperature, each
on a rack the same distance from the base of the oven. When I checked on
them, one tray had burned and the other was perfect. Obviously a
temperature contrariety exists between the two ovens. Similarly, the heat
on the tops of stoves deviates in terms of the power source, as well as the
temperature, size and shape of the flame.
A world of variations exist
within the nature of the ingredients, of which quality is only the
beginning. Putting aside the fact that the TV show procures top-notch
products from the best purveyors, food items fluctuate on many other
dimensions. Vegetables can vary in chemical composition and water
content based on time of year, cultivation methods, and where and when they
were planted. The biological properties of meat, fowl, and fish can
diverge based on the animal’s environment, diet, age when harvested, and the
addition of byproducts to name a few. Even sections of flesh from the
same animal differ based on anatomical and biophysical elements.
There are countless nuances
in the methodology realm. If you so much as place four chicken cutlets
in a skillet to be pan-fried as opposed to three, you will change the rate
at which they cook. Every single step you take in preparing a
recipe has alternative options that can affect the finished product.
Consider pasta preparation. The amount of water, the amount of salt,
when you add the pasta, how much pasta, when you remove it, how you drain
it, and how soon it finds its way to the sauce are all variables. Not
to mention the stove, pot, chemical properties of the water, and brand of
pasta. Are you starting to feel overwhelmed? This is why cooking
frightens some people.
This discussion should be
bringing you to the inescapable realization of how much a cook’s expertise
plays a role. An experienced chef is more knowledgeable about these
factors, how to exploit the ones that are to his advantage, and how to
compensate for those that are not.
You must also remember that
the dish you are trying to replicate for the first time has probably been
made by the TV chef a gazillion times. (You also don’t see the
inevitable errant dishes that are edited out and redone). Cooking is a
skill, complicated by a ponderous array of intermingling variables.
Mastering such a fickle endeavor takes practice. Knowledge, although
vital, will only take you so far. Cooking is a process that requires a
“feel”, an intangible know-how that only comes with repeated exposure.
We could beat to death the physics of hitting a baseball, including
equipment factors, human biology, psychological influences, etc. etc. etc.
But the bottom line is you would have to practice it repeatedly to become
deft at it.
But I want you
to remain undaunted in the face of adversity. My reason for elucidating the
overbearing number of variables is not to intimidate you, but to educate
you. Learning the facts is the starting point. Then, take your
ever-growing knowledge and apply it, over and over again. Keep making that
recipe till you master it on your cookware in your kitchen. Do not get
discouraged. As cliché as it sounds, this is definitely an arena where we
learn from our mistakes. No more burning crostini in that one oven for me.
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